Fans of The Witcher 3 were delighted to find out that the game was making an unlikely return, with developer CD Projekt Red confirming the upcoming release of the Songs of the Past DLC. That comes more than a decade since the release of the last effort, Blood and Wine, with its general purpose being to bridge the narrative gap between that and the upcoming fourth game.
That is set to launch in 2027, and very exciting it is too, but not everyone is going to be able to get in on the proverbial party. Nintendo Switch players, as well as those who still game on the PS4 and Xbox One, won’t be able to purchase and download the DLC due to the technical restrictions of those platforms.
It turns out those aren’t the only players who could miss out though, with PC players potentially needing to make some considerations, depending on their home specs.
Over on the official website for CD Projekt Red, the developer published a lengthy post detailing how the PC requirements for the game are going to increase, in order to “ensure smooth performance and compatibility going forward for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Songs of the Past.”
It’s clearly serving as a necessary sacrifice to pave the way for the future, with the list of minimum requirements now as follows:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
- VRAM: 6 GB
- RAM: 12 GB
- Storage: 70 GB SSD
- OS: 64-bit Windows 11
Not only that, there are other strict requirements moving forward centered around the hardware you have installed on your PC, and its interactions with Windows 11. The list of those is as follows:
- Windows 11 will be the minimum required OS for both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 following Microsoft’s end of support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10.
- HDDs will no longer be supported, as SSDs offer faster load times, smoother asset streaming, and improved overall performance.
- The game will exclusively run using DirectX 12, which allows us to support ongoing technical improvements and modern hardware more effectively.
- Only processors supported on Windows 11 will be supported by us.
- Only graphics cards with ongoing active driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported.
It’s quite the least, and possibly a bit galling for those who either didn’t want to upgrade to Windows 11, or don’t have the money to upgrade their HDDs to SSDs. In any case, without it, we simply wouldn’t be getting the DLC, so it’s just something we’ll have to deal with as fans if we want to play it.
The release of Songs of the Past was delayed into 2027 (without an exact date), “to achieve the best possible result,” according to co-CEO Michał Nowakowski, which is probably code for “we’re steering clear of GTA VI as much as possible.” Until then, we’re just going to have to wait to hear more about this, and the highly anticipated Witcher sequel.
- Released
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May 19, 2015
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content
- Engine
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REDengine 3
- Cross-Platform Play
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yes
- Cross Save
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yes
- Expansions
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The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine
- Franchise
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The Witcher